Despite women being more Eurosceptic than men, their typically risk averse
nature means they might think twice about leaving the EU and facing an
uncertain future, discovers Cathy Newman.

As Sally Albright explains in When Harry Met Sally, "Women are very practical." It's why, she says, Ingrid Bergman gets on the plane at the end of Casablanca to return to her husband. Harry thinks she should have stuck around to enjoy the greatest sex of her life, but Sally knows any woman with her head firmly screwed on her shoulders would baulk at taking a risk on a man who runs a bar "and that's all he does".

In YouGov's last polling, both men and women are far more interested in more pressing issues such as the economy than Europe. Only nine per cent of men, and seven per cent of women say it's the most important issue facing their family. If you ask them, though, what matters most to the country, the figure - and the gender gap is bigger - with 24 per cent of men singling it out as an issue, and 17 per cent of women. For women, but not men, domestic concerns like childcare and education are almost as crucial: seven per cent of men but 15 per cent of women care most about childcare; 11 per cent of men but 15 per cent of women are bothered about education.

I asked YouGov's boss Peter Kellner whether this is because Sally was right: they're practical about the issues concerning them and their families. He agreed. "Women are more concerned with safety and security and that includes social and financial security. They don't want to send their sons to fight in foreign wars and they like to know the food bills are going to get paid," he said.

He thinks that's why women polled now are marginally more Eurosceptic than men - because they see the EU, with its welter of directives and interfering officials, as in some vague way a "threat" to their way of life.

Women by a nine per cent margin say they would vote ‘No’ rather than ‘Yes’ in the forthcoming referendum. Men by a two per cent margin are more likely to vote ‘Yes’ than ‘No’.

However, intriguingly, he believes the very same focus on safety and security will prompt women to change their minds as a referendum approaches. "In a referendum I think that will flip over because the risk option will be to leave."

As Ben Page, chief executive of Ipsos Mori, puts it: "Rather than looking at macro economics they [women] will be a bit more likely to be thinking: 'does it mean the price of goods will go up?'"

So like Sally, with her days-of-the-week knickers, or Ilsa Lund’s (aka Ingrid Bergman) decision to stay with her husband, many women voters might think twice if leaving the EU means running off with someone who promises them an uncertain future. "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life".